Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 4 > Chapter 41 - [Effective Until 7/1/2024] Go Build Tennessee Act

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Any law to the contrary: includes , but is not limited to, any conflicting provision of any general statute, local law, private act, charter provision, municipal law or municipal ordinance. See Tennessee Code 16-18-301
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means the state board for licensing contractors, created by §. See Tennessee Code 4-41-102
• buyer: means a person who buys goods or obtains services from a retail seller in a retail installment transaction and not principally for the purpose of resale. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Capital improvement property: means any real or tangible property needed for a governmental purpose and having a useful life of one (1) year or more, and any real or tangible personal property with respect to which capital outlay notes can be legally authorized and issued by a municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Cash sale price: means the price for which the seller would have sold or furnished to the buyer, and the buyer would have bought or obtained from the seller, the goods or services which are the subject matter of the retail installment transaction, if such sale had been a sale for cash. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• contract: means an instrument or instruments evidencing one (1) or more retail installment transactions entered into in this state pursuant to which a buyer promises to pay in installments for goods or services. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Contracting party: means any party to a contract, lease or lease-purchase agreement other than a municipality, and can include individuals, corporations, partnerships, other government agencies, and other business entities. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: means a nonprofit corporation, which shall be properly incorporated under the laws of this state and approved by the United States internal revenue service as an organization that is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code ( Tennessee Code 4-41-102
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Goods: includes goods which, at the time of the sale or subsequently, are to be so affixed to real property as to become a part thereof, whether or not severable therefrom. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Governing body: means the board or body in which the general legislative powers of the municipality are vested. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Metropolitan government: means the political entity created by consolidation of all, or substantially all, of the political and corporate functions of a county and a city or cities. See Tennessee Code 7-1-101
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Municipal court: includes the city, town, mayor's, recorder's or municipal court, or other similarly functioning court, however designated, for any city, town, municipality or metropolitan government, whether the court exists pursuant to general statute, local law, private act, charter provision, municipal law, municipal ordinance or other legal authorization. See Tennessee Code 16-18-301
• Municipality: means any county or incorporated city or town of the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Notice of meeting: means the notice of meeting referred to in this part. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Official fees: means :
  (A) The fees prescribed by law for filing, recording or otherwise perfecting or releasing or satisfying any title or lien retained or taken by seller in connection with a retail installment transaction. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Resolution: means any resolution duly adopted by a governing body pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 7-51-901
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail charge agreement: means an instrument or instruments prescribing the terms of retail installment transactions which may be made thereafter from time to time pursuant thereto, under which the buyer's total unpaid balance, whenever incurred, is payable in installments over a period of time and under the terms of which a time price differential, as defined in subdivision (10), is to be computed in relation to the buyer's unpaid balance from time to time. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• seller: means a person regularly engaged in, and whose business consists to a substantial extent of, selling goods to a retail buyer. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Services: means work or labor furnished, whether or not furnished in connection with the delivery, installation, servicing, repair or improvement of goods and includes repairs, alterations or improvements upon or in connection with real property. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Time price differential: means the amount, however denominated or expressed, which the retail buyer contracts to pay or pays for the privilege of purchasing goods or services to be paid for by the buyer in installments. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• transaction: means a contract to sell or furnish or the sale of or the furnishing of goods or services by a retail seller to a retail buyer pursuant to a retail installment contract or a retail charge agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105